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hi everybody welcome back to top words
my name is alicia and today we're going
to talk about 10 ways to improve your
writing so let's go
don't use text speak
okay so the first tip to improve your
writing is don't use text speak text
speak by that i mean for example like
brb or lol or
those kinds of words the words that you
use on the internet like sns or in text
messages with your friends those very
short like slang words ttyl or lmao or
those sorts of acronyms do not use those
in your formal writing if you are
writing a letter a
a business email whatever do not use
those the only one that you can use in a
business email so not in a letter of
recommendation not in a formal letter
but the only thing you can use that's
sort of text
speakish
is the acronym fyi which means for your
information you can use fyi in a mail to
your colleagues in an email to your
colleagues or your co-workers
but usually it's with somebody you have
a good relationship with you can say fyi
in those cases other texts speak other
acronyms like that don't use them you
you will sound
immature you will sound
too casual
not a good idea
use proper punctuation
the next hint is to use proper
punctuation proper punctuation
punctuation for example we have commas
we have periods semicolons colons
apostrophes quotation marks parentheses
all of these are punctuation marks the
little points in our writing that tell
readers where to stop reading or how
sentences are connected using proper
punctuation in your writing will help
your reader understand you and if your
reader understands you well and you've
used proper punctuation you will also
look a bit smarter too if you're not
using proper punctuation like for
example if you forget to use an
apostrophe in a word it's going to look
kind of bad honestly for example if you
use the word
your y-o-u apostrophe r-e if you leave
out the apostrophe if you just write
y-o-u-r-e
it looks lazy it looks lazy so make sure
to use proper punctuation to avoid
appearing lazy so don't forget your
little periods comma semicolons all that
don't repeat the same vocabulary words
the next tip is don't repeat the same
vocabulary words don't repeat the same
vocabulary words she says repeating the
same sentence but don't repeat the same
vocabulary words means if you are using
like an adjective a specific adjective
in a sentence
don't use that same adjective in every
other sentence like try to use different
adjectives to describe your points if
you're always using exactly the same
words to describe your point like if for
example i want to write about
cake if i want to write an article about
cake and i just say this cake is
delicious this cake is so delicious i
loved this cake because it was delicious
this was so delicious
it's boring for the reader to read the
same word every single sentence or and
also you're not really communicating
very much if i just use the word
delicious to describe a cake the reader
doesn't understand why the cake is
delicious so give more detail when
you're sharing your opinions of course
this time it's a very simple opinion
about delicious cake but use a variety
of different adjectives
support your arguments with statements
that use different vocabulary words so
don't always say the same word to
describe something try to use a lot of
different vocabulary words and think a
lot about different adjectives you can
use if this is difficult for you there
is a tool you can use uh the english
word for it is thesaurus thesaurus so
many of you know what a dictionary is a
book or a resource to check the meaning
of a word but you can also use what's
called a thesaurus with a thesaurus you
can search for synonyms words which have
the same or similar meaning as other
words so if i look for the word like
delicious i might get let's see some
synonyms for the word delicious might be
yummy tasty
good
delectable for example so there are a
whole range of other words that you can
use if you find that you are using the
same word in every sentence try to find
a different word you can use a thesaurus
to help you do that so avoid using the
same word in every sentence or avoid
using this repeated vocabulary words
avoid use of very and really
okay the next tip is to avoid the use of
very and really by this i mean
instead of saying to go back to my cake
example the cake was very delicious the
cake was really delicious
very and really are sort of lazy words
of course they're very very useful
they're very very useful when we're
speaking casually and when we're
thinking quickly but if you're writing
and you have some time to think about
what you're writing instead of using a
word that's
common like delicious and just attaching
very like this cake is very delicious
what's a different word that means very
delicious so can i replace very and
delicious with one different word like
scrumptious for example this cake is
scrumptious scrumptious means very
delicious it's only one word so if you
can do this if you apply
a
a word that means the same thing as very
or really plus another word it's going
to level up your vocabulary and you're
going to reduce the number of words in
the sentence so if i say this cake is
very delicious or if i say this cake is
scrumptious scrumptious has a much
stronger meaning than just very
delicious so avoiding the use of very
and really can level up your speech
quite significantly so give it a try
use transition words and phrases
the next tip is to use transition words
and phrases use transition words and
phrases so transition words are words
and well and phrases we use to move from
one idea to the next idea so continuing
in my cake example if i want to
introduce my scrumptious cake and then i
want to move on to a description of the
store that sells that cake i might use a
transition phrase or some kind of
sequence phrase to help me do that so if
in paragraph a i'm talking about my
scrumptious cake and how much i enjoyed
it and the chocolate flavors and the
amazing frosting i could use a
transition phrase for example by the way
if you're interested you can purchase
this cake at abc store for example so in
that case my transition phrase was by
the way a very casual transition phrase
depending on the kind of thing you're
writing you can use different transition
phrases if you're writing an academic
paper for example
when you want to add information you can
say additionally moreover furthermore
you can also use plus if you'd like to
add information in addition is another
one that you can use so when you want to
add information there are some
transition phrases or some ways to give
more information
to describe a sequence you can say next
then following that you can use your
words like first second third fourth
depending on the sequence you can say
subsequently or consequently as well so
think about the relationship between the
points you're introducing think about
all these different relationships how do
you want to connect these ideas so
instead of just listing your points each
point try to think about how to connect
those points naturally
so depending on what you're writing the
words you use will change which is fine
but just think about the way you'd like
your reader to understand your
information and choose transition words
and phrases accordingly
organize your writing intro body
conclusion
okay the next one is a tip about
organization so the next tip is organize
your paper or organize your writing into
an introduction a body and a conclusion
so these are the three basic elements of
an academic paper or of an essay perhaps
an article as well introduction is as it
sounds it's introducing the main points
what are you going to talk about what is
your opinion what is your argument we
introduced that in the introduction then
the next part is the body of the paper
in other words the main points the
your real arguments everything you would
like to say about the things you
introduced in your introduction this is
where you get into the details of that
so the body of the paper is typically
the longest part of the paper or the
longest part of the essay so there's a
lot of information in the body section
finally the conclusion the conclusion of
the paper concludes or finishes the
paper in the conclusion you will
summarize your points from the body of
the paper and you should connect those
points to the items you introduced in
the introduction of your paper so all of
these elements these three elements
should connect together so if you are
finding that it's difficult to organize
your thoughts or you don't know how to
approach your paper or this item maybe
even an email you're writing you can try
to separate it into three sort of
categories introduction body conclusion
so introduce idea explain idea summarize
idea this can be very helpful in writing
avoid use of second person
okay the next hint is avoid use of
second person second person this is
going to take a little explanation so in
english writing we have three sort of
ways that we can write we can write in
first person which means for example i
went to the store i wanted to buy
something i met a friend so first person
i am the person sharing the story
sharing the information in second person
which is kind of rare actually except in
very casual styles of writing
the subject of the sentence is you like
you go to the store you buy some milk
you call your friend this is kind of
rare we see this in children's books and
like i say in sort of informal articles
online third-person style writing is
using he she and character names like he
went to the store she called her mother
they needed to see a doctor so there are
these three types of writing in english
language so first person second person
third person
generally when you are writing
especially an academic paper you'll use
first person or third person to do that
if you're writing something formal you
should probably not use second person
sometimes you'll see uh like a person
describing an experiment for example
like you should submerge the item in
water or you should bake this at 350
degrees using you is fine in casual
situations when you're giving
instructions for example
if you find it in a recipe fine it's
kind of sounds a bit more casual it's
very informal not so important however
if you find that you are using
you you you in an academic paper it
sounds a bit uh too casual too informal
so please avoid use of second person so
reminder second person is the subject of
the sentence is you you so it sounds
like you're kind of commanding the other
person commanding the reader or giving
advice to the reader or telling the
reader what to do it sounds very odd so
avoid use of second person in your
writing
consider the tense you're using
the next tip is to consider the tense
you're using consider the tense you're
using so i'm just going to talk about
two tenses here really
present tense and past tense um so we
can use the present tense uh and the
present continuous tense really to
explain a story or to tell a story like
it's actually happening so if i say like
i go to the store i see a friend of mine
she's buying milk for example if i use
the present tense and i use the present
continuous tense it sounds like the
listener or if it's in writing uh it
sounds like that's actually happening
it's easier for the listener or the
reader to kind of experience the story
in that moment so if you want to create
some tension in your writing if you want
to create some excitement you can use
the present tense and its associated
tenses to kind of heighten the energy
level if you use past tense however you
might create more of a report nuance so
for example when you watch the evening
news or you read the newspaper
you might find that it's written in past
tense it's just reporting information
what happened so simple past tense is
used past tense and the other associated
tenses in past tense are used so when
you're writing consider what do you want
the reader to feel or what do you want
the reader to experience are you writing
a report maybe you should just use past
tense are you writing about general
facts
then if you're writing about a general
fact you should probably use present
tense but if you want to create like a
fiction story for example and you want
your reader to experience the story and
kind of feel enthusiastic or energetic
about your story uh present tense and
maybe continuous tense um with present
would be a better choice so just think
about which tense you're using for your
writing
consider appropriate vocabulary
the next tip is to consider appropriate
vocabulary consider appropriate
vocabulary so depending on the type of
thing you're writing there are words
that are good to use and there are words
that are not so good to use if you're
writing an academic paper for example
don't use casual words don't use curse
words in your paper don't use anything
that could be interpreted or could be
understood as informal if you're writing
something very casual on the other hand
it's fine to use casual words it's fine
to be informal to be a little bit funny
and it might sound strange if you do use
informal words or extremely polite words
so consider the appropriate kinds of
vocabulary words to be using depending
on what you're writing
learn to use references
okay the last tip is maybe the most
difficult tip the last tip is learn to
use references learn to use references
this is especially important if you are
writing academic papers or if you are
writing something
you're going to publish in like a
journal or maybe even a magazine using
references means you are using
references reading references and
writing about them and including what's
called a citation in your writing so
you're taking a piece of something that
someone else has written putting it in
quotation marks perhaps depending on the
way you choose to cite it and then
adding a reference list at the end of
your document to show
which documents you referenced which
documents were important to you in
making your argument so if you can use
references in your writing to support
your argument it can be a very very good
tool so if you
have just kind of an opinion piece you
want to write an article even for the
internet for example it can be very very
helpful to support your argument with
links to other
references with links to other
information about your opinion so
yes i'm it's most important it's most
focused on in academics uh in academia
really but if you're writing even for
the internet learning how to reference
properly learning how to include others
works properly in your work can be
extremely valuable so try that out it's
it's a big topic it's a difficult topic
but learning how to use references can
really help you improve your writing
so those are 10 ways to help you improve
your writing i hope that there were some
useful tips in there for you if you have
any questions or comments please feel
free to let us know in the description
no not the description okay i'll try it
again
okay so those are 10 ways that you can
hopefully improve your writing i hope
that those were useful for you if you
have any questions or comments please
let us know in the comment section below
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too thanks very much for watching this
episode of top words and i will see you
again soon bye
writing i love writing
sometimes
seriously though writing when you have
to write is just
it's not fun don't use texty language
don't use text texty speak texty
language text speak that's hard to say
yeah text speak
text speak i guess i could be very tech
speak
that doesn't sound the same text speak
wow that's hard to say in english all
right writing
writing
i don't even know
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